Expectations - is it still worth...

Land to be allotted for Salim-an Indonesian Industrial Group-suddenly a lot of reservations arises comprising of agricultural land and industrial land. All these days all these lands were mere wasted marshy lands and nothing more. Oh, sorry, of course, this controversy aught to be arisen. There are mainly two reasons for it, (a) going by the OXFORD definition of democracy-the right to express ones’ feelings and (b) this would be of immense help to the state and Society, thus this project should be prevented from being executed. What a pity that after 5.9 decades after independence, when a foreign project is about to be launched, suddenly many controversies arises from the air.
Previously Kolkata was considered the CULTURAL CAPITAL of the COUNTRY. Now only the citizens of this city continue to excel in their own fields but keeping the city lagging behind. Let it be in the field of INDUSTRIES, SPORTS, POLITICS, ENTERTAINMENT, ACADEMICS, LITERATURE, what not! Still now, Bengalis’ leads these fields but they constitute of no help to their immediate society. Seeing the other way round people of other states and communities exploits them. Whom to blame for it? Is it the CELEBRITIES and the ACHIEVERS who struggled throughout their lives to reach the ZENITH and is still struggling to maintain it? Alternatively, is it their place of work, who we say are exploiting them, who have provided them with the proper infrastructure and Government support to exploit their talents?
No, it is we, the citizens of Kolkata, the State Government, who is completely responsible for being neglected from being enriched by their services to the society, to the ECONOMY. All this as the Government Policies and Attributes towards its CITIZENS forced them to do so. Inspite of all positive natural and geographical phenomenons, the climate - moderate, the location – can be the gateway of SOUTHEAST ASIA and be a centre of International Trade, the City is steadily rolling backwards.
Outsourcing is the TERM now-a- days. Yes, the talents of the CITY are personification of “outsourcing”. Even if they love their city, they are forced to leave their Alma Mater if they want to excel on their talents.
The CITY was devoid of the exchange of population during partition, as experienced by other parts of the country, as was the case in the land of the five rivers. No one was ready to relocate from a better place to a worse place, as our CITY, at least then, had better living conditions than any place in our neighboring country. We all agree that our city faces a major man-made, to be more specific, govt.-made problem of refugees, but as compared to the problems faced by other big prospering cities, it is simply nothing. It does not have to face natural calamities like earthquakes as faced by Tokyo annually, or of drug peddling or terrorism as faced by MUMBAI and NEW DELHI. Well, our optimistic Government boasts of these above facts and justifies by labeling KOLKATA as a well governed and a safe CITY to live in. The justification lies in a completely another chapter: our ECONOMY is not too strong to provide a profitable business for the drug peddlers, and we have no such infrastructures, apart from those erected by the BRITISH RAJ, which will attract the terrorists as well. However at least the drug peddlers, smugglers and terrorists have recognized the importance of the State’s geographical location and are fully utilizing it as a gateway to INDIA, the resource that our Government of 30 years still fail to tap even partially!
In place of concentrating on the development of the CITY, and the STATE, the Government is more interested in putting up debatable issues like pulling a ban on tramways, the only city in the country that can boast of rails below as well as on the roadways! Now also a ban on hand-pulled rickshaws is being planned, which also is an only in this country and next only to SHANGHAI. At a time when MUMBAI- the industrial capital of the country is on a switch over from MUMBAI to SHANGHAI, KOLKATA – the CULTURAL CAPITAL of the Country is on a roll to get rid off the only resemblance it is bearing with SHANGHAI.
Still now, our CITY can boast of possessing leaders in each field, starting:
Industrialists- the richest Indian holds its roots in our CITY, Mr. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal.
Politicians- one of the most important cabinet posts is being held by a person from the State, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, well lets not venture into the innumerable number of freedom fighters, as the struggle for freedom started from Barrakpore in 1887 and the National Anthem as well as the much controversial National Song are composed by Bengalis’ of Repute.
Literature/ Philosophy- all the Nobel Prize winners of our country have their links with the CITY, starting from Kabiguru Rabindranath Tagore to Amartya Sen. Now there is Mr. Kunal Basu.
Sports- the most sort after sports had the most successful Captain from the CITY, well the football team also has the most famous footballer from the state, Baichung Bhutia.
Entertainment- the first Oscar Award Winner, Satyajit Ray, the leading Bollywood Actresses is a Bengali, Rani Mukherjee and Bipasha Basu, the first Miss Universe was a Bengali, Susmita Sen.
The leading playback singers of the industry are from Bengal, RD Burman, Sanu Bhattacharya, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Shantanu Mukherjee, Babul Suprio, Alka Yagnik, et al. Leave alone the likes of Sakhti Samanta, Hrikesh Mukherjee, Amitabh – who started his career here from Kolkata, Manna Dey, Hemanta Mukherjee, Kishore Kumar..
But of what use when none of these personalities had pursued or are pursuing their careers in the CITY OF JOY, of what use when all these personalities have shifted their base to other Cities for nurturing their talents. So what do we lack? Not talent or hard work of course! Then what?
“WHAT BENGAL THINKS TODAY INDIA THINKS TOMORROW”, is a perfect example of an irony now a days! When Cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Noida are on a verge of saturation, then only Kolkata is being thought of, WHY? In which way are we lagging behind these cities? The Industrial explanation is: Government Policies backed by Labor Problems.
After a drought of 25 long years, we have started seeing moistorous clouds. Issues like removal of tramways and hand- pulled rickshaws in the name of cleaning the CITY are making us depressed once again. We feel as the Government has started being optimistic, it should bring back home its own talents and thus restore its Glamour in the country once again.
We expect a lot from this Government. We are sure this Government will not let us down.



--- Anirban Misra